


Waking Up (and other problems)

by mixthealphabet



Series: And It Grows [5]
Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: F/M, Fluff, kind of mature
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-11
Updated: 2013-06-11
Packaged: 2017-12-14 17:12:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/839334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mixthealphabet/pseuds/mixthealphabet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Natsu hadn't known what he was getting himself into when he'd agreed to stay with Lucy during the winter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Waking Up (and other problems)

_Let's go to the park, I wanna kiss you underneath the stars. Maybe we'll go too far. We just don't care._

Natsu hadn't known what he was getting himself into when he'd agreed to stay with Lucy during the winter.

Back then, the only thing on the boy's mind had been the wanting to be near his friend, to protect her and make her company on a season that left so many people feeling down.

As a fire element user, he had never liked the cold, even though he did enjoy playing in the snow occasionally. The low temperatures seemed to immerse Magnolia into a sort of calmness that only served to unnerve him and depress everybody else, something that he attributed to the lack of jobs that came with the closed roads and the shutdown train station.

Initially, things hadn't been all that different from their usual interactions. Since Natsu was always in her apartment anyway, eating her food and trying to sneak into her bed, the celestial mage had taken lightly to the small disturbance caused by two more individuals sharing her home. They were surprisingly used to each other's presence.

Waking up next to her was strange, in a good way. Her bed was comfortable and warm in the mornings, despite the chill that crept into her room during the night. He would open his eyes when it was still dark, feeling how Lucy had tangled herself with him as she slept, and this fact never failed to fill him with satisfaction.

After so many years of uncertainty and that ever present sensation that he needed to find home, those mornings had felt like finally finding something he was searching for; her acceptance and her unlimited trust in him reminded the boy of… Well, of family.

The blonde knew him better than anybody else. It was odd, but it was the truth. Not only because she had made the effort to befriend him, but because he had allowed her, despite all the pain he'd already gone through by losing Igneel and Lisanna.

In those moments before dawn, the dragon slayer thought about his life before Lucy, about what it would have been like if he hadn't met her all those years ago in Hargeon. He traced the lines of her face with his eyes, not daring to move, even in his half asleep state, and imagined how it would feel to wake up with her by his side every day.

Those were dangerous thoughts, he knew, but, in that half-light and with Lucy in his arms, he couldn't bring himself to care.

There were other things, of course.

Lucy had started to devise chores for him and Happy, saying that they might as well help her around the apartment. Soon, the groceries had turned into his duty while she did the cooking and Happy tidied up the place. Once a week, the girl would boss them around as the three cleaned everything, before taking them out for dinner as a reward for their good work.

The domesticity of it all had gone over Lucy's head, but it certainly hadn't escaped Natsu's suddenly growing awareness of everything related to their interactions. At the same time that it made him feel uneasy, it also brought him a sort of joy he couldn't remember feeling ever before.

The pink haired boy had always known that Lucy was special to him. She had found a way into his affections quickly, turning into his best friend when no one else in the guild – people he had known since they were kids – had been able to. It was something that everybody noticed and talked about, but Natsu hadn't given their words any real thought.

At least, not until he woke up one morning to Lucy half on top of him, her leg between his and her lips against the side of his neck.

The haziness of sleep had disappeared in a second, turning into wide eyes and a racing heart. The heat of his body in that moment had nothing to do with his magical abilities and was, instead, a direct effect of feeling her figure against his, all soft and lean and oh so close. The dragon slayer had tried to control his breathing, but found out that focusing on his lungs made him focus on his chest and on her chest and the thoughts only deteriorated from that point.

It had taken an amount of self-control that Natsu hadn't even known he possessed, as well as some mental images of Gray and Elfman and Makarov, for his – ugh! –  _problem_ to go away.

When Lucy woke up, he – as always – pretended to be sleeping so that she could keep her dignity as she tried to remove her limbs from his, embarrassment coloring her cheeks red.

From that day on, however, things only seemed to get worse.

There was not a day when he didn't wake up hard from his dreams and her touches, as his body yearned for those things that until then Natsu had tried to keep out of his mind, fantasies conjured in those hours before daybreak that he still refused to accept as an existing part of himself.

But the sun was out and there he was.

The boy blinked and groaned as he watched Lucy bend over once more, touching her palms to the ground and trying to stretch out her back. She was oblivious to his stare, too involved in her work out to spare him a look. Virgo, however, seemed to alternate between helping the mage into the stances and smirking in his direction.

"Why are you doing this again?" He questioned, trying to disguise his anxiety. His trousers were already starting to feel a bit constricted.

The blonde exhaled heavily, modifying her position so that her body formed an inverted v.

"This one is called 'downward facing dog', princess." The celestial spirit informed helpfully, before sending Natsu a look full of smugness.

"Yes, yes, thank you." Lucy uttered breathlessly, trying to focus her eyes on Natsu despite her stance. "It's yoga. It helps me train my mind and body, which is exactly what my magic requires."

The boy almost huffed irritably, realizing that her shirt had moved down with gravity, exposing her stomach to his eyes as well. The combination of it was a very sexy looking celestial mage with tight fitted clothes, messy hair and flushed skin, in a position that did nothing to reduce his mental catalogue of ways he could touch her.

Which was bad. Really bad.

Damn, this was his best friend! Why was he acting like the hormonal teenager he never was?

He could already hear the jabs from everyone on the guild, laughing and teasing him about how he had finally become a man, even if it'd taken him eighteen years. Mira and Lisanna would be terrible, with those knowing looks and all that interfering that he really didn't understand the reason behind. Gajeel would disappear from sight, since he was probably the only one that could understand the upbringing that had led Natsu to this sort of cluelessness and, by being so, would be bombarded with questions from the more curious mages (also known as Levy).

It would be a living hell if they found out.

"Your body looks fine." He mumbled under his breath, sulking. "That's kind of the problem."

"Did you say something?" The girl asked, her ponytail swinging adorably as she, once again, tried to look at him. Receiving silence as an answer, she continued. "You could always join me if you're bored."

For a second, Natsu considered her suggestion. Maybe if he busied himself with something, his mind wouldn't drift to those lewd subjects…

"Oh, yes, I believe there are some movements that require a second individual." Interjected Virgo. Her face was blank as she moved her gaze from Lucy to Natsu, but the boy thought he could see mischief in her eyes.

He was almost certain that the spirit was meeting up with Happy in order to bother him about these newly found hormones.

The dragon slayer felt himself pale as he imagined what kind of positions he would end up if Virgo had her way. Lucy was, after all, a beautiful woman, and his attraction towards her had increased strangely and abruptly since he decided to prolong his stay in her home. No matter how much control he had, there was no way he was going to put himself in a situation that could lead to a lot of embarrassment and most probably Lucy's anger.

"No, I'm okay."

Natsu knew that moving from his sit on her couch and touching her would be a bad, bad idea.

But no one could blame him for looking.

**Author's Note:**

> Ok, ok. This was kind of shameless, but it was sort of a gift to the dearest Carols, who is a bit younger than me and a lot more of a pervert. I was also trying to explain how Natsu's feelings are changing and taking up a more physical aspect.
> 
> The song is PDA by John Legend and I absolutely love it.


End file.
